That's right, your favorite dive has been serving up tropical drinks in downtown Lawrence for 25 years now, and for the past five years we've celebrated our birthday every August with a giant block party in the street.

This year, the party gets even bigger! Join us for TWO NIGHTS—yes, two nights!— of live music, lots of beer, and more fun than people should be allowed to have.

Here's all the details:

Friday, August 8

Celebrate Sandbar Subs World Headquarters' first anniversary in downtown Lawrence

Thank you to all of our wonderful customers and friends who celebrated with us, and a huge thank you to Peoples Bank for sponsoring this year's party.

In case you missed it, we went all out this year with a giant stage, even bigger beer garden and a Grammy-nominated band, the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

And perhaps the best part? The weather was gorgeous- really, we couldn't have asked for better weather, especially after a long, gray, rainy week. It wasn't hot like it's been for all our other block parties; it didn't rain; but it wasn't cold, either. Truly perfect.

Very Important People enjoyed a preparty in the brand new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters right across the street from the bar, where a new Peoples Bank location will be housed as well.

Local band Cowboy Indian Bear opened the show and then the Thunderbirds took the stage. They played until around 10:30, which left plenty of time for party-goers to mingle in the beer garden after the show.

We took a lot of pictures. Click here to see them on Flickr, or you can watch the slideshow below.

We've never run a contest on Facebook before-- Facebook's terms of service make it just too darn difficult.

(All those contests you see asking you to "like" or "share" a status or a photo in order to enter to win something? Yep, those are against Facebook's TOS. Most people either don't know or don't care, but Facebook can shut down your page without warning if you violate their rules. I don't want to take that risk.)

In order to run a legitimate contest on Facebook, you pretty much have to use a third-party application. Which either means you need to have mad development skills to create your own (I don't) or spend money to use an app that someone else has already created.

So, that's what we're doing.

Announcing the Best Sandbar Pictures of All Time contest.

You can enter on Facebook (click here to enter or vote), or you can also enter a photo on Twitter or Instagram by using hashtag #sbparty13. The app claims that entries with the hashtag will automatically be entered, but if for some reason it doesn't work, we're not responsible.

You can enter pictures and vote until August 5.

Encourage your friends and family to vote for your picture; the entry with the most votes will win a pair of VIP passes to the beer garden at our August 10 block party!

You must be 21 to enter the contest and redeem the prize; we'll ask for two forms of ID to verify.

So start digging out your best Sandbar pictures and enter our contest!

The
Sandbar, a downtown beach bar, has been a staple on the Lawrence bar scene
since 1989. A little over a decade ago, Sandbar founder Peach started dabbling
with the idea of expansion.

“The
subs story started when I found out that most downtowns would not allow a bar
to go in without food sales,” she said. Overland Park and other similar
towns—including Lawrence-- have zoning
regulations to prevent the same type business.

Longtime
bartender and manager David Johanning agreed to take over the responsibility of
the Lawrence bar while Peach explored expansion options. This was during
the time the Legends shopping center in nearby Kansas City was under
construction. “We were asked to
participate in the original Legends plan,” Peach said, “but realized we were
not experienced enough at that time to handle such volume.”

The
small town of Ottawa, close to home, was a great place to test ideas and
concepts. Peach opened a second Sandbar location that was a restaurant and
bar (click here to read more stories about the Ottawa adventures) and enjoyed
it, but she knew it wasn't quite the right match.

During
this time, the Madls became friends with the Zaremba family of Zarco66. The
Zarembas had just bought a store in Ottawa, and Scott and his family often came
into the restaurant on wing night.

A
downtown Ottawa sub shop without table service was the next effort, and boy it
worked. It was great fun, Scott came down and enjoyed the food and a
partnership was born. We now have three Sandbar Sub Shops inside Zarco66
convenience stores in Lawrence and Ottawa.

The
Sandbar Subs World Headquarters is slated to open in August, right across the
street from the original Sandbar, along with a new location of Peoples Bank.

Now
how did the relationship with Peoples Bank happen? Peach explains, “Well, back
in the old days, banks would sometimes be ‘not nice.’ My husband and I had the
opportunity to buy the building the original Sandbar bar was in. However, I was
rejected by a bank my accountant referred me to-- because ‘you receive the
majority of your income from the sale of alcohol and we are a family owned
bank.’”

Their
regular bank wouldn’t loan money for properties outside of Baldwin City. So one
day Ted said, “Hey, I have a cousin who’s a banker, let me call her!”

“That's
when I met Maley Wilkins of Peoples Bank, and she took great care of us.”

Another
connection to Peoples Bank comes by way of the Winter family, who are
well-known around the Lawrence area.

“When
we first got the Crystal Plaza Theater in 2005, it was struggling, “ Peach
said. Peoples Bank kept sponsoring events and coming by and supporting us in
many ways in Ottawa. The late Wint Winter, Sr., who was chairman of Peoples
Inc., was a wonderful man and he is honored at the Plaza Grill and Cinema with
a picture on the Wall of LOCAL Stars in the lobby.

As
for the new Sandbar Subs World Headquarters/Peoples Bank adventure in downtown
Lawrence?

Peach
says it came about when Scott and Maley spent time talking instead of listening
to speakers at a Chamber event and came up with this wonderful plan.

“And
Ted and I said ‘we're in!’” said Peach.

Usually, this is where they say the rest is
history, but in this case, the next chapter is just beginning.

Be sure to join us on August 10 for the big block party bash! Click here for more info.

For our inaugural block party five years ago, the one that celebrated our 20th birthday, we put together an epic slideshow of pictures from those first twenty years.

And when I say epic, I mean it was like twenty minutes long.

We went through all our old photos; we scanned photos from our walls; and we requested photos from our customers and friends.

In the end, we ended up with some 800 pictures in that slideshow.

Last year, we put together another slideshow, and again we asked for your photos. Most of the pictures in that slideshow were newer, and this show was significantly shorter with only around 200 pictures.

We recently resurrected those slideshows and started running them on the TV's in the bar-- in between music videos by 90's boy bands.

And now, it's time for another one. We know you all take lots of pictures in the Sandbar-- we see them on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram. So if you have a favorite (or two or five!) that you'd like us to include in the slideshow, send them our way. You can email them to sandbar@thesandbar.com and we'll do our best to make sure it gets in this year's version of our photo album.

It's that time of year again, friends- time to celebrate our birthday with another block party! This year's extravaganza takes place on Saturday, August 10.

This year, our friends at Peoples Bank have stepped up to sponsor the
event and kick it up a notch. In addition to celebrating our birthday,
we'll also be celebrating the grand opening of Peoples Place at the
corner of 8th and New Hampshire (in the former Mirth Cafe location),
which will house a new Peoples Bank location as well as the new Sandbar
Subs World Headquarters.

This year's concert will feature the grammy-nominated band the Fabulous
Thunderbirds, with local favorite Cowboy Indian Bear opening the show.

Also new this year: a VIP party! Very Important People like you can enjoy a
pre-party with appetizers and beverages in the new Sandbar Subs space
before the concert starts. Each VIP ticket also includes a
limited-edition party T-shirt, a meet & greet with the band and
admission to the beer garden and Sandbar.

The concert itself is free and family-friendly, but you'll need to buy a
ticket if you want to enjoy it from the beer garden or inside the
Sandbar- and you must be 21 to do that.

You can buy tickets online here (use promo code SANDBAR to save $5 per
ticket for regular beer garden tickets, or SANDBARVIP to save $10 per
ticket on VIP tickets). We'll have tickets available in retail locations
this week, including at the Sandbar, Sandbar Subs and Peoples Bank.

Stay tuned for more updates and fun announcements about this year's party!

RSVP on Facebook and share the event with your friends! And don't forget to use #sbparty13 when you talk about it online.

Our fourth annual birthday block party was last Saturday, and once again we were truly amazed at what a great night it was. So many of you came out and partied with us, and for as many people that came through our doors- or gates- there were virtually no problems.

Local band Blue Orleans (like them on Facebook here) kicked off the party around 7 p.m. on our recycled pirate ship stage. (We spend a lot of time and money building our St. Patrick's Day float, so we're thrilled to be able to use it again!) Blue Orleans has played at street parties in front of our place before, and they're always popular with the crowd. In fact, usually people are asking if they can play longer

Here's a video that Patrick shot of the band:

After Blue Orleans wrapped up, Peach introduced the newest member of the Sandbar family- Dave's baby boy. He's almost eight months old, so give him a couple years and he'll be mopping floors and wreaking havoc at the bar, just like Andrew did when he was little.

While Mark Valentine's headlining band was setting up their equipment on our ship, we played a slideshow of pictures from the past year at the Sandbar. Many of the photos were submitted by our faithful fans, and we appreciate the response we got when we asked for your pictures.

The slideshow is pretty long (though, it's not the longest one EVER as our friends over at the Larryville Chronicles seem to think) and we'll eventually get it posted on YouTube so everyone can see it.

While we're talking about the Larryville Chronicles, click here to check out their recap of our block party. It's pretty funny, and we're impressed that they got their recap posted long before we found time to write our own.

The big news of the night was the debut of a brand new hurricane video! Our current video is five years old, and while we still love it and many of you still laugh at it, it's time for something new. Patrick, Peach's brother, created a new video starring a few folks from the Sandbar. We played it at the block party, and we hope you'll stop by the bar sometime to see it in action.

Mark Valentine and the Knights finished up the night by playing all of our favorite tropical tunes.

Once again, the night was super fun and went by so fast. We can't wait until next year!

This year's extravaganza will be held on Saturday, Aug. 11. The fun starts at 7 p.m. with live bands, a beer garden and tropical drinks.

Around 9 p.m. we'll have a special surprise: the unveiling of a brand new Sandbar hurricane video! We're also attempting to create the first outdoor hurricane in Lawrence. Mark Valentine and his band will play afterwards, starting around 9:45.

We're also putting together a slide show of Sandbar pictures from the past year. If you have pictures you'd like to have included, email them to us at sandbar@thesandbar.com. We'll do our best to include all the photos we receive!

There's a $5 cover charge for the beer garden, and you must be 21 to enter the beer garden and/or the bar. Alcohol must be kept within the beer garden. Otherwise, everyone young and old is welcome to join the party!

We've had some questions about the shark slide from last year. We weren't able to reserve the slide again this year, someone else beat us to it. So, it won't be there this time.

Ethan is the little brother of bartender Hayley and the son of Dave's high school basketball coach. He started working at the door a few months ago, and now he can actually have a drink AND learn how to tend bar!

Ethan and Hayley and friends will be celebrating his birthday tonight at the Sandbar, of course.

One of the highlights of last weekend's Shark Fest block party was the giant, 40-foot-long inflatable shark slide.

We first spotted the shark slide last year when McDonald's on 23rd St. rented it for their grand reopening celebration. Not really sure how McDonald's and sharks go together, but the slide was perfect for our party.

The slide went up on Saturday afternoon and the kids swarmed. Their parents couldn't believe the slide was free. We had no intention of charging people to slide, but if we'd charged a buck a ride we could have easily paid for probably the entire party!

Dave and Curtis raced each other down the slide. The rules said only two adults on the slide at a time, but the rules probably didn't expect two giant men to ride at the same time.

Bartender Tegan escorted a baby down the slide. We didn't get a picture of that one.

Our slide supervisor Ken informed us that local downtown legend Dennis even took a ride on the slide. we aren't sure if his baby doll went with him, or if someone held onto it for him. No picture of that one, either.

Overall, the slide seemed to be a big hit with kids, parents and party-goers. Now what can we do next year?